a place in the dark sea
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Someone has decided the redeemed soldiers of Bagra Army are not worth forgiving. Someone else has decided the former soldiers should just stay ghosts. Yuu caught in the middle of his own mistakes, needs to take both groups out. Meanwhile, Tagiru has to navigate the dark web that Quartzmon left behind.
1. Prologue

_Warning for blood, violence implied, and_ ptsd

* * *

One - Of Bloodstains

Taiki, after years of practice, had figured out how to make time for himself. It took a miracle and numerous schedule rewriting but he was now able to sit comfortably at home and relax.

To be fair, he wasn't alone but when he ran into Ryouma and Ren at the supermarket, that had developed into just a casual, fun day with friends. Or former rivals. They had been more of Tagiru's rivals but he had been against them once. If he could bond with Kiriha via flying face punches and life-death scenarios, a harmless game of find the Cutemon was a piece of cake, really.

Well, mostly harmless. In comparison. Yes.

Ren cursed, creatively, from on the floor and Ryouma smirked at him, one of those affectionate looks that made Taiki's heart twist with guilt and even a bit of envy. He didn't have relationships like that. He had friends, he had close companions, he had Akari and Zenjirou and Kiriha and Nene, and even Yuu sometimes when he was out of his own head, but it wasn't the same. Those were relationships forged in fire, those were people who had in one way or another, had seen him die. It… It wasn't exactly the best way to forge anything intimate and personal.

(These kids hadn't seen him die, they had seen him get _close_ , and that was enough.)

He had to wonder how military families did it.

His thoughts were cut off by Ren tackling Ryouma over on the floor. Then he yelped in pain and scrambled away. "Dude, that was your ring in my _eye_."

Ryouma made a face, trying to fix his hair as quickly as possible. "That would be a very good hint not to put your face by my hands, wouldn't it?"

Ren glared and Taiki took that moment to leave the bedroom. At least the only things really breakable and within reach were his desk lamp and the tv. He'd hidden his computer hours ago, mostly so his mom wouldn't try to use it again.

Never let it be said his mother wasn't great, but she was terrible with electronics that weren't from Apple. He did not know why.

"Sounds like they're having fun up there," his mother commented idly. "Do we need to invest in a new rug?"

Taiki laughed and waved his hand, smiling at her. "They're fine," he said. "Just lost a match."

His mother smiled back. "Is that right? Well, if you're sure it's fine."

"It should be." It wasn't real violence, not meant to harm, not to kill. It was fun. All it was was two friends who cared about each other. Tagiru and Yuu did it all the time. It was (probably) normal.

"You've gone from homework duty into babysitting duty," she said to him, stirring the rice now.

"Better than tactician duty." He settled in the chair and watched her.

His mother's smile dimmed a little, but not enough. Not enough to actually worry him, just… in acknowledgement. At least that was what he hoped.

"Is it over yet?" she asked him in that low voice she usually used when referring to his father coming home or when the bills could take an extra couple of extra days to pay.

His own smile lost the glint of teeth. "I don't know," he admitted. "Digimon are still running about all over the world."

It was part of what had kickstarted Nene's career good and proper. She could sing, sure but she was mainly a girl who could Hunt and be a hero who saved the world. There were small documentaries of her having saved people once or twice, with vague mentions of her past as a general, a war hero. Which meant, even briefly, the other generals had been dragged into the limelight.

Not the hunters, thank goodness, they wouldn't know what to do with it (and Yuu refused to let Tagiru near a camera), but even Akari and Zenjirou had had their moment. All of them in tandem had decided to despise it with every fiber of their being. But they had borne it and it was over now. And, in roughly five to ten years, Nene would be quitting.

"I'd like to not have a heart condition that's incurable by the time I'm thirty," she had jabbed him over the phone. He had laughed, and guilt had trilled in his gut. But he let it go. It had been the most necessary sacrifice he had ever made. And he'd do it again too. For Yuu, for his friends, for the future that Shoutmon had wanted to create, nothing seemed worth giving up.

His mother opened her mouth, possibly to change the subject, when his phone buzzed hard enough to shake the table a little. He tilted his head at the sight of the caller id. Tagiru never called him when he had friends over. It was like he had a sixth sense of when to actually call him. So he picked it up and slid the call on. "Hello?"

"Taiki-san!"

Taiki immediately pulled the phone away from his ear as Tagiru's voice filled the entire room as he shouted and babbled incomprehensible things into the void. THere was a higher edge to it than usual, leaving it as frantic peals until Taiki managed to catch him in a breath.

"Tagiru, I heard none of that." He kept his voice patient and slow because that ended up working with both of them. "What's going on?"

Tagiru was quiet for a few beats, a heartbeat too long. "Yuu is… he's hurt, he's… there's a lot of blood, Taiki-san what do I _do_?"

The last word rose in pitch to almost a high whine and Taiki pulled the phone away again, his own heart thumping with pain in his ears.

He glanced at his mother, who, face white, motioned to take the phone. Taiki handed it to her without a second thought, going to grab anything useful. His mother chattered at Tagiru with quick, business-like snaps of orders, and he ran up the stairs to find the Ren heading down them. He was slightly pale.

"Problem," Taiki told him, voice a little too curt. "Yuu. It's not sounding good."

Ren visibly flinched. Taiki paused, dancing on both feet. He needed his Xros Loader, but Ren's face… something was not right. "What happened?" Because he wouldn't care about Yuu, Ren had a very specific set of people that he thought about on a regular basis and Yuu was not one of them. If he was reacting at all beyond a sly comment or mild interest, this was not good.

"Ryouma's passed out," he said. "It's… there's a weird… _thing_ on his hand. It just appeared when he hit the floor."

Taiki almost cursed on every deity he knew.

"We'll get him on my bed," he said, for lack of anything else to do considering his current lack of a phone. "Try to wake him up. Did he fall hard?"

"No."

That was one good thing today. Taiki finished climbing the stairs, the pain in his chest refusing to recede. He just needed his Xros Loader, and SHoutmon, and the others. And he needed to go back and resolve this immediately.

Before whatever happened to Yuu and Ryouma ended with them dead.

So much for this all coming to an end.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** And second request fic from... what was it a year ago? Idk it was a while so here is part one of that, should be at max 12-14 chapters, because the person ain't been on in ages and they didn't even want more than 10k. For the sake of a well-paced plot though, that is what's going to happen. A bit over 10k and it's over. :D Please enjoy and leave a comment, it really helps me out!

Challenges: Novella Masterclass Hunters list 1.


	2. Chapter 1

_Warnings: Discussions of hospitals_

* * *

 **Two - Of Shakes and Aches**

Tagiru had never been good with hospitals. He'd been in and out of them until he was thirteen, a terrible immune system and a weak body and even then had never escaped the entire heavy weight of them on his back and the medicine downed every day until he could taste the pills in his dreams.

He was worse when it was someone else, and admittedly, a lot worse when it came to Amano Yuu.

Not that Yuu was weak, or dumb or whatever. He was very strong and even Tagiru could swallow his ego and admit that. But whatever had attacked him wasn't a stray cat or whatever. At best it was a rogue angry digimon and they'd been a bit slow. At worst it was something else, something angrier that ran at the sound of someone else.

So, a coward.

Tagiru hated cowards.

Taiki appeared beside him with a rush of wind and something… else, though he'd probably just gone through the door. But then, to Tagiru, Taiki-san was just like that. Something other, something beyond people, something that moved. He doubted anyone, let alone Taiki-san, even noticed the wind that followed him, or the smell of recent fires and cedarwood.

Tagiru wasn't poetic, but Taiki-san did not feel human to him and never had and he was happy with that.

Sometimes, Tagiru didn't feel human either.

He did now, in these little moments where he felt helpless.

"Tagiru," Taiki greeted, unruffled by his own wind. "What happened?"

And Tagiru explained, poorly. Words weren't his thing, but Taiki-san, the thing about Taiki-san that no number of hunts and evolutions and games and years could get Tagiru to surpass, was that he understood the jumble and mess of people. And he understood this right now.

Taiki nodded when he was done. "I see. I got it." He sat down on the bench. "Will you go check on Ryouma for me? He's probably still back at my house. I'll take any information down and keep in contact with Nene."

Tagiru flinched outright. "I… forgot about her." Which he didn't know _how_ , her existence was hard to forget in general. "Wait… hold up, what's up with Ryouma?"

Taiki fixed him with a look that made him feel ten centimeters tall. "We don't know. I figured you'd want to help look into it rather than stick around here."

Something in Tagiru relaxed and immediately coiled up in guilt a second later. "Taiki-san…"

"Don't worry," Taiki said with that pleasant, easy smile. "I've taken care of Yuu long enough. I'm practically an expert."

Tagiru believed that. "Akari-san's not here to take care of you."

"If she appears behind a pillar with seven pillows and her school bag, I'm sending her after you," his old senior replied, waving his hand. "Now shoo."

Tagiru left gratefully. He wished he could have bounced out a little less but he hated, hated _hospitals_. He didn't understand how Taiki-san did anything.

Yuu would be fine. He had to believe that. Besides, he could probably help Ryouma at least a little. They were rivals after all!

… hah. Yeah, he didn't even believe that himself.

Ugh. He hated feelings.

* * *

Taiki eventually entered the now safer hospital room to a semi-lucid Yuu blinking at him and Nene at his ear via his cell phone. Taiki smiled at him and Yuu smiled back, still clearly much too out of it to actually acknowledge he was here. Taiki didn't mind. He'd rather the other boy be as out of it as possible and rest. It'd be inconvenient if the person tried for a second time but Taiki had carried people before.

It'd hurt his heart, but he'd do it for Yuu.

Okay, realistically he'd do it for anyone, but he'd especially do it for Yuu and he knew why. It wasn't the most important thing in the world, not in comparison to Yuu surviving whatever or whomever this was.

He settled and kept speaking with Nene until she hung up, having hopped on the nearest way to Japan because even if she couldn't stop whoever did this, hell hath no fury like a General who could plot revenge. And Nene has a master's degree in retribution.

He messaged Kiriha next, along with the others in the group chat.

"This sucks…" Yuu finally said, voice low and teetering on whiny. "What did I do now? It's been… I'm about to graduate. Who hates me now?"

Taiki smiled, peace in his face, fire in his eyes. "Well, when I find out who did it I promise you'll get to go to college without any worries."

"You're not going to be able to protect me forever, Taiki-san," Yuu said with a firmness of a cynical young man.

 _Why not_? He wanted to ask. Why not be with him and protect him for the rest of his life?

Well there were all sorts of reasons. He cared about them but he wasn't sure he cared about them enough. He'd have to decide when this was over, and he talked to Yuu.

His Xros Loader warmed against his leg and he picked it up. "Hey, Taiki!"

Taiki smiled a bit. "Shoutmon. You heard?"

"Yeah Damemon's livid. It's taking Dorulumon to pin Cutemon and him from tearing across two worlds."

Yuu let out a choked laugh. "They're ridiculous."

"Love's like that," Taiki said gently, unflinching, not even when Yuu met his eyes. "Do you have any leads, Shoutmon?"

"I don't." admitted the king after a moment. "Not personally, but Lopmon does."

"Lopmon?" Something in Taiki's heart warmed. He'd always had a soft spot for the little guy. "Is he around?"

"He's headed to you right now, once Wisemon stops threatening to dissect him."

Taiki wanted to laugh. Some things never changed.

* * *

Ryouma was awake and visibly fine

Inwardly, he was scared out of his mind. That was not normal. That was not anything good. It had been a jolt of pain and then dizzying blackness. And then like a freaking machine, he'd woken back up again, on Taiki-san's bed no less.

Ugh, how embarrassing. And the thing was, he couldn't protest. That hadn't been normal.

Especially since right now he felt like things were crawling on his skin.

Then a voice whispered. "There are three of them, Ryouma. One for each of the mistakes. Be careful."

Ryouma blinked and suddenly Tagiru was in his face. "Ryouma you look like crap."

"I would never." he didn't sit up anyway, it felt like a dangerous idea. "Why are you here?"

Tagiru shrank back a bit, a sulking twist at his mouth. "If I sat and waited to see Yuu in the hospital I'd be on the ceiling. Taiki-san wanted me to look after you. You mind?"

"Not at all," Ryouma said, vaguely noticing the light shine in Tagiru's eyes. But he was worried about something else. Yuu was in the hospital and he had passed out. That couldn't be a coincidence.

Especially since he'd heard Psychemon's voice for the first time in years.


End file.
